Moniker privacy services - a joke?

[eastwright]

Well, as they say you always get what you pay for. Privacy services for $1 p.a. sounds to cheap to be true. I have tried the thing and ... hope ICANN does not read this ... the whois record for my private registration domain at Moniker shows the following contact email address:

example.com@domainservice.com

however sending an email to that address results in

For <EXAMPLE.COM@domainservice.com>, Site (domainservice.com/64.49.213.1) said: 550 5.1.1 <EXAMPLE.COM@domainservice.com>... User unknown

Trying to solve this issue with Moniker for 2 weeks already and got no single response other than automated notifications. Does anybody use the Moniker privacy services? Did you check your contact email address? I wonder if this is a problem related to my account only or a "feature" that jeopardize customer domains due to ICANN compliance issue (dead contact email address)?

[AustinWeb]

You are getting all worked up over nothing important. Domain registration contacts get flooded with spam all day long, the email address is no longer relevant. That is the only aspect of domain registrations that ICANN has accepted lately.

If someone can't figure out how to read the website to get your contact info, they don't really want to get in touch with you. They can always send a certified letter to the privacy address, it will be delivered to you after it passes through Moniker's screening process.

ICANN is already under fire for not updating the policies so they are more current. With all the scams, hoaxes and exploit attempts, there is absolutely no reason to
reveal personal contact information or working email addresses in Whois. Spammers are already breaking stated policies by using the Whois database for marketing purposes.

[eastwright]

What makes you believe the ICANN lifted the valid contact info requirement? Please keep in mind that there are numerous legal requirements that may sound absurd or outdated, but you have no choice but to comply. If in doubt, I would suggest you to enter the following string into Google search box:

familyalbum.com GoDaddy

As to spam issue, I do not understand why it is an issue at all. My mail server registers about 5 thousand messages addressed to my personal mailbox daily, but only 10-20 spam messages reach my mailbox. Nothing unusual - just SurgeMail server with recommended settings and standard Thunderbird junk mail filtering.

Furthermore, and this is much more important than ICANN and spam issues combined: every second no-nonsense inquiry I receive is addressed to the whois email address, although web page for each domain I own shows either a link to contact form or the form itself.

Anyway, back to the topic, Moniker finally fixed the issue.

[aguss]

I used to think moniker is a top notch thing.
This changed after i registered a name with them and found out everythings not so smooth (i always thought theyre that good just because people here always say good things about them).
At registration i was a little offended with their paypal 'back to you' charge although i believe they will say everybody is doing it...
then i encountered problem changing nameserver.... some error message about something..... i contacted support and they fixed it for me in a day...... it was good... but i kept receiving emails from support for another 3 or 4 times after that..... that was ok......

then today i was trying to contact a domain owner who happens to use moniker's privacy service.
I emailed the owner only to get 'email delievery failed' message from yahoo.
Then I checked if i entered the right address... I did.... then I went to centralops.net to check if the address is a valid and working address..... apparently not.......

Agreeing with eastwright i really think this is a joke.... I am not sure if Moniker was really good before it was sold..... right now im gonna rate them as 'ok'.

just my 2 cent.....

(this is my first post again after years.....) =)

[jdk]

Yeah they dont work at all. Personally, since you are not getting something you pay for why not just change your whois info to match what they offer for their privacy services? You aren't getting the email forwarding anyways.

I used to think moniker is a top notch thing.
This changed after i registered a name with them and found out everythings not so smooth (i always thought theyre that good just because people here always say good things about them).
At registration i was a little offended with their paypal 'back to you' charge although i believe they will say everybody is doing it...
then i encountered problem changing nameserver.... some error message about something..... i contacted support and they fixed it for me in a day...... it was good... but i kept receiving emails from support for another 3 or 4 times after that..... that was ok......

then today i was trying to contact a domain owner who happens to use moniker's privacy service.
I emailed the owner only to get 'email delievery failed' message from yahoo.
Then I checked if i entered the right address... I did.... then I went to centralops.net to check if the address is a valid and working address..... apparently not.......

Agreeing with eastwright i really think this is a joke.... I am not sure if Moniker was really good before it was sold..... right now im gonna rate them as 'ok'.

just my 2 cent.....

(this is my first post again after years.....) =)

They only care about their auctions nowadays.

[italiandragon]

ouch.....and I put there with privacy my high profile names... :(

I guess I`ll have to move them again.

anyway I paid $4 for each domain

[RegFee]

I've been back and forth with moniker customer service over the past week. I tried sending email to my domains 'protected' by this service. Nothing got delivered. They claimed to be sending email to the address, which I received. Not that they'd have any reason to do it, but part of me wonders if they were just emailing the address on my account directly and claiming to be emailing the whois address. Regardless, I had to take their word and closed the support ticket. I would like some assurance that potential buyers could contact me.

[LoneWolf]

tried with 5 names, nothing :(

If you look into the whois of domainservice.com, you can see that domainservice.com is for sale. Maybe I will buy this domainname and control every other domains with privacy *lol*

[MonikerMan]

we are looking into the email spam issue through our privacy service and will be testing a new spam filtering system shortly to address this issue. If you contact your Account Executive, we do have a couple of temporary options that work until this is resolved for specific domains.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[jdk]

I can say I sent in a ticket and they resolved the email bounces within 24 hours for my domains.

[WeBuyThe.Com]

Monte takes care of business as usual..Thanks!!

[RegFee]

http://whois.domaintools.com/tween.com

That domain uses Moniker Privacy services but just uses a Moniker address. Is it owned by Moniker, or is there another privacy service avail?

[Bender]

we are looking into the email spam issue through our privacy service and will be testing a new spam filtering system shortly to address this issue. If you contact your Account Executive, we do have a couple of temporary options that work until this is resolved for specific domains.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Monte, almost two weeks passed...is this fixed now?

[MonikerMan]

yes - we are in our final week of testing and should launch this week - all looks good.

[dvdrip]

I don't want to sound pesimistic but support system took years.

[MonikerMan]

dvdrip - actually that is not true. we chose to use a manual email and phone based support system for years. Once we decided to upgrade and move to a more advanced support ticket and tracking system, it took us 4.5 months to implement...which has worked out great.

In any case, i realize that both items are important and we are addressing - I hear you all and am addressing it.

thanks,

[dvdrip]

Monte, do you really want me to search your old posts?

[BLazeD]

So if you email a Moniker whois protected id, then it will get forwarded now or not?

[aguss]

yeap I have not been able to contact domain owner either... and its almost a month now i believe since my last post here...
Although I dont want to sound negative, I do think it's a little crazy...

[John Mauriello]

The Privacy emails for all Moniker accounts should be forwarding. We tested the system to make sure that emails are properly forwarding on all Moniker Privacy Service emails addresses. Keep in mind that not all Moniker Registrants that use Moniker Privacy services reply to email inquiries regarding domains.

Please let me know if anyone is still having issues or open a ticket from your Moniker account.


Regards,
John Mauriello
jmauriello@moniker.com
954-861-3536
800-688-6311 Ext. 3536
FAX: 954-984-0209
ICQ: 341620056 AIM: monikermaurie
MSN: jmauriello@gmail.com